Kane Brown Credits His Mom for His Maturity, Desire to Help Others

Kane Brown has never shied away from talking about his tough upbringing, during which his single-parent family struggled with poverty, often jumped from house to house in order to afford rent and even slept in a car. However, the country star is also quick to credit the person who helped him become the man he is today: his mom.

"I grew up without a father figure. He went to prison in '96, and he's still there," Brown explains. "My mom was so good at hiding the bad in life that I thought all of life was good."

Life is good for Brown these days: In 2017, he netted his first No. 1 single, "What Ifs" -- a duet with childhood friend and fellow country up-and-comer Lauren Alaina -- and got engaged to his then-girlfriend, Katelyn Jae. In October, Brown bought his mom a car for her birthday after hers was repossessed. The singer told Billboard that it had been a tough birthday for his mom, and he was excited to be able to do something special for her.

"Her birthday was Oct. 2, and of course [the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in Las Vegas] took place on the 1st, so she was worried sick all night," he recalled to Billboard. "Then, on her actual birthday, her car was repossessed. So, she didn't have a car, and was only making $9.75 an hour. Something came over me, and the next day, I thought, 'I'm going to get my mother a car.'"

Brown notes that his mom is also the one who taught him the maturity he needed in order to be successful in country music.

"As I got to school and started getting older, I realized [how hard she struggled to make our lives good]. That's when everything hit me. To me, that's when I became a man," Brown says. "I realized everything my mom had done for me: Anything we didn't have, she made sure we had. It really changed and matured me, having a mom like that, and that's what really made me want to get to this platform and help other people."